Divine Office, dispensations from

[LGBOFM]

When a priest says three Masses on Sundays or weekdays is he dispensed from the entire Divine Office?
When a priest says two Masses on a single day is he obliged only to Morning and Evening Prayer?

 

[mrsmallninja]

Sorry, I do not know the answer to your question. Yet, I am looking for guideance on how to properly say the Divine Office. Are you suppose to say the Invitatory before every morning/evening prayer? Also, the Office of Readings…when are they suppose to be said?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Matthew_Holford]

When a priest says three Masses on Sundays or weekdays is he dispensed from the entire Divine Office?
When a priest says two Masses on a single day is he obliged only to Morning and Evening Prayer?

No, he has no dispensation. He must still recite the Office. Of course, a bishop may give one of his priests dispensation if he felt the circumstances warranted it.

 

[Matthew_Holford]

Sorry, I do not know the answer to your question. Yet, I am looking for guideance on how to properly say the Divine Office. Are you suppose to say the Invitatory before every morning/evening prayer? Also, the Office of Readings…when are they suppose to be said?

Thanks for your help!

The Invitatory is said once per day. It is recited before the first office; no others. If you’ve no obligation to recite the Office you could, of course, omit the Invitatory anyway.

The Office of Readings can be recited at any time of the day or night. It has no fixed time. You can even anticipate the Office of Readings for a particular day on the previous evening. For example, you could say the Office of Readings for Wednesday on Tuesday evening.

 

[FatHead]

The Invitatory is said once per day. It is recited before the first office; no others. If you’ve no obligation to recite the Office you could, of course, omit the Invitatory anyway.

The Office of Readings can be recited at any time of the day or night. It has no fixed time. You can even anticipate the Office of Readings for a particular day on the previous evening. For example, you could say the Office of Readings for Wednesday on Tuesday evening.

its also optional if it would be said before lauds which is morning prayer

 

[AJV]

When a priest says three Masses on Sundays or weekdays is he dispensed from the entire Divine Office?
When a priest says two Masses on a single day is he obliged only to Morning and Evening Prayer?

See the response of the Congregation of Divine Worship to this questions some years ago here.

nccbuscc.org/liturgy/innews/022002.shtml

In particular:

A serious reason, be it of health, or of pastoral service in ministry, or of an act of charity, or of fatigue, not a simple inconvenience, may excuse the partial recitation and even the entire Divine Office, according to the general principal that establishes that a mere ecclesiastical law does not bind when a serious inconvenience is present;

The total or partial omission of the Office due to laziness alone or due to the performance of activities of unnecessary diversion, is not licit, and even more so, constitutes an underestimation, according to the gravity of the matter, of the ministerial office and of the positive law of the Church;

To omit the Hours of Morning Prayer (Lauds) and Evening Prayer (Vespers) requires a greater reason still, given that these Hours are the "double hinge of the daily Office" (SC 89);

If a priest must celebrate Mass several times on the same day or hear confessions for several hours or preach several times on the same day, and this causes him fatigue, he may consider, with tranquility of conscience, that he has a legitimate excuse for omitting a proportionate part of the Office;

The proper Ordinary of the priest or deacon can, for a just or serious reason, according to the case, dispense him totally or partially from the recitation of the Divine Office, or commute it to another act of piety (as, for example, the Holy Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, a biblical or spiritual reading, a time of mental prayer reasonably prolonged, etc.).

So for example, if the priest has time for say, reading novels or watching television or playing golf, he certainly has time to pray the Office. The Office does not really take that long anyway. With LONG meditation on several parts it can be upto 20-25 minutes. Simple recitation would probably be between 10-15 minutes.

 

[Matthew_Holford]

See the response of the Congregation of Divine Worship to this questions some years ago here.

That was very interesting. I presume that it has a universal application and wasn’t restricted to the USA.

Unfortunately, that sort of information never appears on the website of our episcopal conference.

 

[Digitonomy]

See the response of the Congregation of Divine Worship to this questions some years ago here.

(1)

So do these two paragraphs represent a single two-part process, or two separate ways that a priest may be excused for skipping part of the Divine Office?

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

That was very interesting. I presume that it has a universal application and wasn’t restricted to the USA.

Unfortunately, that sort of information never appears on the website of our episcopal conference.

Nor do I see why it should. After all it does not apply to the general laity.

The laity do not need to know everything that applies to the clergy and religious.

 

[mrsmallninja]

Thank you very much Matthew for your response! I greatly appreciate it. I do say the Divine Office for a reason, I just have not had the proper teaching on how to say it. My priest at my parish, did not know really anything about it (specifically the scapular).

Thank again! :tiphat:

 

[OraLabora]

Thank you very much Matthew for your response! I greatly appreciate it. I do say the Divine Office for a reason, I just have not had the proper teaching on how to say it. My priest at my parish, did not know really anything about it (specifically the scapular).

Thank again! :tiphat:

The scapular? A scapular has nothing to do with the Divine Office at least from the point of view of necessity.

Moreover as a layperson one is not obliged to recite the Divine Office at all, unless participating in the charism of a religious community that requires all or part of it (e.g. Benedictine Oblates, third orders, etc.). So can omit parts of it if you need to.

As an Oblate I try to recite all the canonical hours (Vigils, Lauds, Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline) but there are times when I must omit an office (work, travel, family obligations) or replace the minor hours with a single mid-day Office (for which I follow an approved combination in my monastic breviary: Tierce and either Sext or None combined into one hour, Sext the first week and None the second)

 

[puzzleannie]

As an Oblate I try to recite all the canonical hours (Vigils, Lauds, Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline) but there are times when I must omit an office (work, travel, family obligations) or replace the minor hours with a single mid-day Office (for which I follow an approved combination in my monastic breviary: Tierce and either Sext or None combined into one hour, Sext the first week and None the second)

just to point out Oblates are not required to recite the Office at all, as in a canonical requirement, we do so in solidarity with our Benedictine compadres, and in any case those who do make this promise do so only for morning and evening prayer, although strongly urged to incorporate the office of readings. So the additional hours is a choice, not in any sense an obligation, nor is there any requirement to to the traditional hours, unless the house with which you are affliated does so.

none of this of course is relevant to OP

yes a priest can be dispensed formally from all or part of the obligatory hours in case of need or grave inconvenience, and can even use his own discretion, but like all such DIY dispensations should get spiritual direction if it becomes a habit. For instance, many local priests travel extensively on weekends covering their parishes and missions, so are dispensed from all or part of the obligation, although most pray it anyhow. This is where electronic aids are becoming very helpful.

 

[OraLabora]

just to point out Oblates are not required to recite the Office at all, as in a canonical requirement, we do so in solidarity with our Benedictine compadres, and in any case those who do make this promise do so only for morning and evening prayer, although strongly urged to incorporate the office of readings. So the additional hours is a choice, not in any sense an obligation, nor is there any requirement to to the traditional hours, unless the house with which you are affliated does so.

No not in a canonical sense of course but as part of the requirements of the Oblate’s charter of the community the oblate is affiliated with. What Offices are required or suggested is up to each individual community as an oblate as you know is attached to a specific abbey or priory and not to the order per se. In our house the charter only states that you are supposed to recite the Office to the extent that “your life situation” allows. We are given an abbreviated breviary published in-house that contains Lauds, Vespers and Compline; that is, I guess, a suggestion as to what you should do but is by no means an obligation. We are also free to use the Roman Office, or as I do, the complete Monastic Breviary (the Fueglister schema, Schema B).

Incidentally our shortened Breviary is close enough to be considered valid; an approved psalm translation (in French) is used. Some simplifications were made, namely for memorials only the collect is used, but the antiphons, etc, are directly from approved sources.

Essentially we are external members of the community; as such we do not make vows but instead we make a promise and that includes a promise of obedience to the abbot with respect to our relationship with the community and the requirements of our oblation. In practice the abbot has delegated that to our Oblate Master. The abbot of course cannot dictate how we live in our own homes but can influence the terms of the Oblate’s Charter and can certainly dictate what we can or cannot do within the community. We had for example an oblate who misrepresented the monastery by using it to promote his personal business on his website, and he was told in no uncertain terms to remove all references to the abbey from his website and any promotional material.

 

[dans0622]

So do these two paragraphs represent a single two-part process, or two separate ways that a priest may be excused for skipping part of the Divine Office?

Hello,

It’s two separate ways. The General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours states: "29. Hence bishops, priests, and other sacred ministers, who have received from the Church the mandate to celebrate the liturgy of the hours (see no. 17), should recite the full sequence of hours each day, observing as far as possible the true time of day.

They should, first and foremost, attach due importance to those hours that are, so to speak, the two hinges of the liturgy of the hours, that is, morning prayer and evening prayer, which should not be omitted except for a serious reason."

1. We have here an ecclesiastical law which requires certain people to say the entire office. This law, as all ecclesiastical laws, can be dispensed by the proper authority.
2. The use of the word “omitted” tells us that the law (which this “Instruction” is) gives the person him/herself the authority to discern what a “serious reason” is and gives the person the option of omitting these hours–with a peaceful conscience–if the serious reason is present.

This is how it appears to me.

Dan